Fortunately more independent economics and financial experts are examining this bill. Naked capitalism overviews the latest analysis. This is a good post and one point outlined is how start-ups are not dependent upon IPO, stock to succeed. That's a huge point, VCs are looking to exit their investment either through acquisition or IPO but it's about profit margins and the "right" connections versus operating capital, although I do beg to differ in some start-ups, in particular complex engineering/technical projects which do require teams of engineers to bring the design to 1st rev., plus very, very expensive patent attorneys to boot. Bottom line, VCs do come late to the party most often. One usually gets Angel investors at best to get off the ground. It's pretty awful, to even get enough funding to hang out in your bedroom to create the prototype is near impossible and that's where money is most needed, to get that prototype, initial product launch out the door, IP protected, nailed down. Expansion is where the VCs often come in.

Anyway, this is one rigged bill as written! I still believe a mechanism to enable more crowd sourcing, small investors, who then enable directives such as hiring locally, say hiring older workers, U.S., most importantly, manufacturing in the U.S. is important.

Frankly, even state sponsored VC funds are riddled with politics. It's who you know not what you came up with and your ability to execute, all the way to the bank. That's a problem. We all know there are probably over a million extremely talented Americans flat ass broke right now who are capable of bringing a business from ground zero to profitability and success.

Not much detail or any info in the size of the fines. MarketWatch:

HSBC Holdings PLC , Goldman Sachs & Co., OneWest Bank, EverBank, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. , U.S. Bancorp, MetLife Inc. and SunTrust Banks Inc.

Interesting list in that not the usual suspects are here, but a couple I was aware of were "evil" but they never seemed to make press.

.... that there are more than a few very bright techies who are, behind the scenes, powering what is happening with #occupy and more?

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Spot on. Don't fail to realize this same tactic is being applied to the treasury bond market. The Federal Reserve and failing European central banks are the only reason our debt is being sold. Treasuries continue to be massively overvalued, and wouldn't be bought by any smart investor.

"If you get the feeling the world is going crazy, you are right. Our global financial overlords have lost all sense of prudence, temperance, or conservatism – qualities that in the past were the hallmarks of the guardians of the financial Temple. It would take an in-depth cultural study to figure out how such institutions – especially the Federal Reserve – came to abandoning their fundamental ethos"

Every day I am scared about the financial world we live in. It honestly makes me wonder if I am the crazy one.

Most states are "at will" and as such techies become targets if they even think out unions. Activism on social media will also make you a target. All of a sudden, we would find that since we failed to put in our 60+ hour week as a salaried employee, we are now having paperwork generated to support their claimw when they find our replacement from India and show us the door.

It is better to keep quiet and try to remain employed than the alternative. After all, we are not the ones who get millions in yearly bonuses and just cannot afford to give them more reasons to import someone else to do our jobs.

And when it comes to lobbying Congress, the pockets of the corporations are much deeper than our collective pockets.

Obama is for unions and unions are for Obama.

This is only one reason why oil and coal must be replaced as soon as possible: Oil spills a lot.

Let this trend continue. Thursday mornings have been encouraging this year. We need a little break on gas prices and we could have liftoff.

Even the Repugs will be happy because they only care about social issues. Screw the economy its not in the bible. Not one primary candidate has the guts to put forth an honest economic plan. One that doesn't lead to being Greece anyway. They only offer us plans that would triple unemployment while providing taxcuts to their corporate owners. They can save their breathe and PAC money.

I keep seeing the term "immoral," but what we're seeing is "amoral." Morality and immorality imply the existence of a code, a list of things that are right or wrong. The new state religion of America is the worship of money. In pursuit of a quick buck, anything is permissible. Morality doesn't enter into it.

I knew that the model was for businesses, but somehow a cog slipped in my brain and I went off on a tangent.

If we're at the level of truly small businesses -- like Mom-and-Pops and the classic independent operators/partnerships -- then we're close to or at the level of the underground economy.

I am informed that on a typical agricultural crew (like vineyard workers in the Southwest or treeplanters in the Pacific Northwest), for every worker officially carried on worker comp and UI insurance, there are maybe three who are not counted. Similar situations sometimes are seen with gypo roofing, small fishing boats, etc.. This is especially the situation when illegal immigrants with falsified papers are involved.

Even without considering the birth/death model for businesses, we're mostly in a world of "creative" accounting when we get to working families who are scrambling to survive. Some of these working people will be counted in food stamp numbers, but many (including natural-born citizens) will avoid any kind of government office or program. In any case, these people are not likely to report numbers reflective of reality.

I was confusing the birth/death model with possible questions about differential mortality rates for real people -- members of workforce, long-term unemployed, etc., versus the overall averages that are generally broken down only by gender, age and ethnicity (and not much else).

It's hard to count jobs, hard to count the number of jobs created in a period of time, hard to count the people living in a given area during a period of time, hard to count transients, hard to count the number of people who are working, hard to count the number of unemployed who would be working if jobs were available, and, very hard to count the number of underemployed.

I still like the idea of including numbers developed from advertising real jobs for real money to see how many people (citizens and legal residents) show up and take the jobs, gathering data on individuals along the way. Such an approach takes the goal of full employment seriously.